A murder suspect who is accused of burying a woman and her two-year-old daughter under his kitchen floor reportedly told police: “It’s gonna take you some time. They are about three or four foot down.”
Warning: This story contains graphic content and details of alleged sexual abuse
Andrew Innes, 52, denies murdering Bennylyn Burke, 25, and her daughter Jellica and has instead lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.
Giving evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Police Scotland Sergeant Beverley Symon, 49, said she was called to Innes’ house in Dundee on 5 March 2021.
It was there Innes reportedly admitted that Ms Burke was “under the floor”.
When asked where Jellica was, Innes allegedly replied: “She is with her mum.”
Sergeant Symon then claimed that Innes added: “It’s gonna take you some time. They are about three or four foot down.”
Detective Constable Paul Hardie, 43, later interviewed Innes at a Dundee police station.
While there he reportedly admitted that Ms Burke, from Bristol, had travelled north of the border so they could spend the weekend together but then he found out that she was talking to “50 other men”.
Innes allegedly said: “There was a fight and she came at me. I fought back and now she’s dead. There was no premeditation. She came at me with a sushi knife.”
He claimed it took him “a while” to get through the concrete.
When asked where Jellica was, he reportedly replied: “Under the floor with the mum. I could not look after a child. The child was screaming.”
A joint minute of agreed evidence between prosecutors and the defence team was read out to a jury at the start of the trial.
It was accepted that Innes stabbed Ms Burke on the body with a knife as well as repeatedly striking her on the head with a hammer and the handle of the blade.
It was also accepted that Innes asphyxiated Jellica before burying both bodies under the kitchen floor of his property.
Innes denies further charges of abducting and raping a primary school-aged child and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The court was closed to the public while video evidence recorded with the alleged rape victim was played to the jury.
The child described sexual acts they reportedly had been told to carry out by Innes and claimed they were paid money after each alleged assault.
The child added that she last saw Jellica during a game of hide and seek with Innes.
The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed Innes “pretended” that Jellica was hiding but had “killed” her.
The child believed the alleged killing happened in the bathroom as Innes shut her out of the room.
All of the alleged incidents are said to have taken place at Innes’ house in Troon Avenue, Dundee, between 20 February and 5 March 2021.
